Uber may not have made its way to Belize yet but another similar app named "Mi Driva" could be taking off, with a push, or maybe more like a power surge from the Belize City Council. Pretty soon residents will be able to use the app and to get access to faster and more energy efficient forms of transportation around the city. Jomarie Lanza found out more today.
This morning the Belize City Council held a quick showcase of some of the heavy duty equipment they have managed to acquire in office. In addition to this the mayor also gave us a first hand look at its newest addition, two new vehicles set to be a part of the council's E taxi Pilot project.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"This first event is just to show a display of some of the heavy duty equipment. We have been able to acquire it since taking office in 2018. When we came into the office in 2018 We had essentially one pick up truck we have since been able to increase that to 12 pick up trucks. At one point in time they told us that the type of pick up trucks we are getting will not last five years and now it's six years but this council has always been about perseverance about resilience. We were supposed to remember going after six months. It's now six years so remember we just continue to show that we are resilient and we are here to really serve the people. serving the people is important to have the capabilities in terms of the heavy duty equipment the pick up trucks for your special constables to be deployed your traffic officers to be deployed so we want to continue to add to the fleet and as you can see here we have backhoes we have graders we want to continue to build along that line. As you see, on the other end, we are even venturing into building the ecosystem of immobility in the city. We want to be the pioneers of immobility in the city, and the city is making that charge. I'm driving this initiative. It's very important that we play the leading role in leading immobility within Belize."
It's a collaboration between the City council and the Mi driver App. The goal is to provide a service similar to Uber in Belize, with the help of the downtown battlefield park taxi association who will be the first to utilize these vehicles on a lease to own agreement.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"We are not driving any of the Taxi owners, actually the Taxi owners association. All across the city will really benefit from this initiative because our agreement is a lease to own eventually certainly we will look at how we will depreciate the vehicle we want to ensure that we have the financial model to ensure that we are able to meet the investment the loan that we got for the E taxis we want to ensure that we have a maintenance component in it. We also want to ensure that we are able to pay the drivers out of that and also the city has to get back a little return on investment. And at the end of the term we are able to say the taxi driver. Here is this taxi it is now yours. The taxis will be run on the type of system that you have in the United States similar to Uber, but it's locally built the Midriver App which will be used to really all these vehicles are running all over the city people who want to access these taxes will be able to go on their phone app get the Midriver App tell the driver pick me up at the spot it comes picks you up and drops you off to where you go it will also play a big role when we were talking to the minister of tourism who is very excited about this venture because many times we have the tourists the overnight tourists who come to Belize city and many times they have nowhere to go. They would want to go on the entertainment strip, but the hotel is at Biltmore and they are worried about moving not knowing how they will get back. Having the app on their phones similar to what is there in the United States Uber we are excited about it E taxis which is a compliment to the buses and it's the ecosystem of immobility really transforming the local public transportation in the city."
With up to 56 thousand dollars invested so far the mayor says that they have yet to work out the financial logistics of the module before they begin to fully operate through the app. But for now he has high hopes that within the next three years they will be able to expand onto other taxi associations in Belize.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"I don't think we would overcharge you never want to be in a situation, where we are out pricing or under pricing the existing Taxi drivers you want to have parity in terms of pricing and you don't want to sell the product you don't want to sell the existing driver so you would have to be very careful giving the fact that it's people at the end of the day it's about people it's about everyone being able to earn wages in the city being able to get a return on investment in the city but it's never about driving about anyone out of business. It's always about inclusion."
